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California and folk music don’t seem like they should go together but, for decades now, they have. With this year’s Too Soon for Flowers, Bay Area group the Dry Spells continue on in that left coast tradition. Initially formed in 2002 in New York, the quartet’s debut is a promising mix of traditional, almost Medieval folk music with modern rock energy. The band’s April Hayley, Tahlia Harbour, Adria Otte and Diego Gonzalez recently got together as a group to answer some of our questions.

How do you think Too Soon for Flowers would be different if you all hadn’t been playing more abstract, less conventionally song-based music in your side project, Citay?
All music influences other music, so being involved with Citay has almost certainly had an affect on us as musicians. The founding members of the Dry Spells met Diego and Warren through playing with Citay. Citay has had little structural influence on the Dry Spells’ music because Citay is one songwriter’s vision while the Dry Spells songwriting approach is a truly collaborative process.

An earlier edit of this V-C-V first appeared on pcmunoz.com on December 20, 2005

“Say Goodbye” - Howard Hewett
Written by Monty Seward
From It’s Time, Eagle Records reissue, 2004
Originally released in 1994

First, a little background: I’m a complete Solar Records freak. Solar was a Southern California R&B/disco label, active mostly in the late ‘70s and ‘80s, that released consistently tasty dance music featuring killer bass lines, undeniable hooks, and shiny production, often provided by the super-talented Leon Sylvers III. Some of Solar’s best releases came out during the early ‘80s, which is my favorite era of modern R&B because of its adventurous mix of funk, synth-pop, new wave, and disco.

Howard Hewett first became famous with Shalamar, one of Solar’s mainstay artists. Shalamar was at first glance a kind of prefab disco group; the two other members were future hitmaker-superstar Jody Watley and trendsetting dancer/choreographer Jefferey Daniel. Though all three members were talented and charismatic, I always found myself drawn to Hewett’s vocals. He is a masterful, nuance-filled singer, and his glittery high notes and vocal gymnastics turned ditties like “This is for the Lover in You” and “Sweeter As the Days Go By” into soul-stirring testimonies. After departing Shalamar in the mid-‘80s, Hewett embarked on a risk-taking solo career that has included unique, soul-injected versions of The Eagles’ “I Can’t Tell You Why” and Dylan’s “Just Like a Woman”, proving he is bent on using his voice for interesting interpretive means.

One of my more idiosyncratic musical interests is exploring the countless faceless indie pop hordes that littered late ‘80s British alternative rock. Largely forgotten except by specialist bloggers and people who dig into musty record stacks to pull out import singles that haven’t been played in 20 years (i.e. me), these sorts of mid- to lower-tier British alt-rock bands were quite common on the UK Indie Charts at the time, in addition to taking up residence in the late night environs of famed BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel’s underground-friendly program. The average sound of these groups was jangly/distorted ‘60s-infused guitar pop, performed with a ramshackle amateurishness that betrayed their lack of technique. To be blunt, there was no mistaking these guys and gals for ‘80s Brit alt-rock guitar icons Johnny Marr or John Squire, much less any more conventional axe heroes. Sure, the majority of these bands weren’t even close to filling the paisley and anoraks of top-flight contemporaries like the Stone Roses and the Wedding Present, but for me, their charm comes from their simple, almost instinctive melodicism and song structures—simple pop hewn out of rough bits and unassuming bobs. Oh, and I always get a kick out of their affinity for bowl-fringe haircuts and leather jackets.

So: the Popguns. Hailing from Brighton, England, the Popguns featured among its membership former Wedding Present drummer Shaun Carmen and jazzy-voiced singer Wendy Morgan. From an instrumental standpoint, they weren’t terribly distinctive: ringing chords, guitar fuzz, and a rhythm section fond of throwing in numerous fills in order to liven up otherwise straightforward grooves. Excuse me while I dig for this exact same thing in the Creation, 53 & 3rd, and Sarah Records back catalogues (hey, I like this sound, but it was certainly ubiquitous to the point of being cookie-cutter).

What really makes the group special is Wendy Morgan’s keening voice, which infuses each track with a wistful sepia-toned longing that nevertheless sounds filled with hopeful possibilities. Coupled with the music, you get a very plausible sonic template for American East Coast indie Anglophiles Velocity Girl. Beginning with their 1988 debut single “Where Do You Go?”, the Popguns put out ten singles and four albums on a slew of indie labels, including Medium Cool, Midnight Music, and Third Stone, over the course of a decade. They seem to have dropped off the face of the earth after the release of A Plus de Cent in 1996, which is a shame considering indie-inclined music critics have a soft spot these days for noise pop bands like Vivian Girls, whom I’m certain have been listening to the exact same British indie records I have been for the last few years.

How about a taste of the band’s output? Here’s a video for the Popguns’ second single, “Landslide”:

Next up is what is possibly the band’s best song, “Waiting for the Winter”. I first heard this on the Rough Trade Shops: Indiepop 1 compilation, and it kills me every time with its urgent hooks and energy.

And from the group’s second album Smog (1991), here’s the single “Still a World Away”:

Marc Collin has made a remarkable career out of covering other people’s songs, largely because few people can contort a tune’s subtext in the diabolical way that he can.

Along with Olivier Libaux, Collin’s band Nouvelle Vague have achieved quite a bit of notoriety since their eponymous 2004 debut. By taking classic pop songs and redoing them in a unique bossa-nova style, Collin and his rotating cast of female vocalists were able to find surprising emotional underpinnings in tracks like the Dead Kennedy’s “Too Drunk to Fuck” and Billy Idol’s “Dancing With Myself”, leading all the way up to this year’s Nouvelle Vague 3, which serves as somewhat of a departure for the group.

When an entertainer dies, it’s always a strange event. Suddenly, millions of strangers mourn the passing of someone they never knew, simply because they made a few movies, starred in a TV show, or cut a few albums.

I never “got it”. Until a few days ago.

“The most devastating entertainment death of my life” was the text I sent to a friend when I heard of the death of Jay Lindsey, a.k.a. Jay Reatard. Only four days ago, early Wednesday morning, Jay Reatard, age 29, was found dead in his Memphis home. When I read the news late that night, it took a few seconds longer than usual to process what I was reading.